Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz on search, startups, sticking it out

Rand Fishkin is changing the way that Internet marketers do their jobs. He and his team at SEOmoz are part of a small sector of the tech space, where adaptation and growth are the name of the game. Though it hasn’t always been easy, this humble CEO has prioritized a startup culture that focuses on being here now, and doing the best job of anyone out there.

Rand Fishkin

The company kicked off its sold-out, three day MozCon conference in downtown Seattle today.

•Rand admits to making plenty of mistakes along the way, which is why SEOmoz’s core values are so important to him. “Culture is extremely important to us,” he says, and adds that it has to be demonstrated by the executive team too or it doesn’t work. “Transparency, generosity, empathy – we prioritize them above all other things, so it works.” (7:38)

•The startup world is an exciting place to Rand. Startups are uniquely capable of weathering rapid change, he says, “because they are the catalysts for the rapidness of that change.” Being able to recognize the need for movement is essential to scaling and growing in a successful way. (24:00)

•Staying close with their customers is the secret to SEOmoz’s success — keeping in touch in numerous ways gives the team a clear understanding of what their customer likes and what else they need. Rand doesn’t just connect with his customer advisory board, he makes a point to get to know them in real life too; building those relationships gives you insight others don’t have. (24:23)

•Rand also speaks a bit about the impact of Google on the world of SEO. He explains why he applauds Google for their quest for growth, but why he doesn’t support complete domination of a field. Where does he think the future of search is going? (26:28)

•Finally, find out why Rand thinks pride is “one of the biggest precluders to the success of startup leaders”. Plus, why he likes the idea of sticking something out, and passing on the “what’s next” mindset of Silicon Valley. (29:33)

Jeff Dickey, founder of Nextcast, is passionate about technology, business and philosophy. He works as the chief cloud architect at Redapt, a Redmond-based cloud and big data infrastructure company. His Nextcast interviews appear regularly on GeekWire.